


multitudes

by ShirosRedKnight (SweetFanfics)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (forced) memory loss/ amnesia, Immortal Shiro, Implied Suicide Attempts, M/M, Pre-Canon, Reincarnation, Sort of happy ending, i played a little fast and loose with history tbh lmao, in some lifetimes its m/f but mostly its m/m, its a reincarnation au fam, just a little thou, keith dies many many times, lots of time skips as we go from the 12th century up to pre-canon, suicide ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:36:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7622446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetFanfics/pseuds/ShirosRedKnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You said you grant us <i>both</i> immortality!”</p><p>“You wished for your souls to be bound together. We granted you your wish. You are his anchor. He will find his way to you in every lifetime. </p><p>--<br/>It's a love story spanning 8+ centuries. No one was meant to chase after love for that long but what other choice did they have?</p>
            </blockquote>





	multitudes

**Author's Note:**

> In the midst of all the sheith prompts I've been filling out on tumblr, I got this one that ran away from me so I'm posting it as its own fic. Tried something different than usual in terms of style for this prompt.
> 
> Prompt: Okayy!! But how about Sheith where one of them is immortal? Could be that Haggar somehow made Shiro immortal-- Or Keith is immortal because of the quintessence that touched his skin-- Or an au entirely where A is immortal and B gets reincarnated whenever they die??

“Scared?”

“Yes. But having you by my side helps.”

“Do not worry. I’m sure the mountain gods will grant us our request.”

–

 

 _They do and they don’t_.

_Such are the whimsical ways of the old gods who dwell in the depths of the forest so far away from their village._

 

–

“You said you grant us _both_ immortality!”

“You wished for your souls to be bound together. We granted you your wish. You are his anchor. He will find his way to you in every lifetime. For a cost. Now be begone.”

_–_

 

_He remains the same while his lover ages. Unchanging as the mountain at whose base their lonely hut sits._

_As he holds his lover's wizen hand in between both of his, he wonders if this anguish is the cost of their fulfilled wish._

 

–

“I’ll find you again. I swear.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

–

 

_Emptiness fills him._

_Throbs inside him like a pit of writhing snakes._

 

_For two life times he waits and waits and waits. His lover doesn’t appear._

 

_So he goes searching for his lover instead._

_Takes a boat to the main continent, learns a new language, travels without any inclination except the vague sense guiding him in a general direction. It's an odd tugging sensation that urges him to travel west. Away from their small island nation and onto the large continent._

 

_It’s how he meets him again._

 

–

“Have we met before?”

“Perhaps in another lifetime.”

–

 

_His lover is a merchant in this life time. Well-off enough and preparing to journey to the heart of the Mongol empire with a larger group._

_He doesn’t remember him._

 

_But sometimes…_

 

 _T_ _he way he’ll turn to look at him makes him think that maybe_ some _memory of their past life lingers in his lover's mind._

_The journey is long. Grants them the chance to learn of each other again._

_To fall_ _in love again under the hot sun and cool night skies._

 _Not that he ever_ fell _out of love in the first place._

_They are parted less than a week later when bandits attack their caravan and mortally injure his lover._

 

–

“I…know you.”

“Yes. We met at your shop a few months ago.”

“No… from… before. Your name was…”

 

–

_He sits in the middle of the massacre, holding his lovers cold body and regrets._

_Regrets and regrets until a band of soldiers pass by and ‘save’ him._

_Then he rages as he’s parted from his lover._

_Rages until the flames of his anger burn out and his lover is no longer in his sight._

_His gaze lowers to the ground, stays there until the desert sand turns to muddy roads to smooth marble._

 

_Raises his eyes and realizes he’s arrived at the court of the great Genghis Khan._

_He l_ i _ves from day to day, wondering why the tugging sensation grows stronger every day._

_His answer arrives the day he accidentally bumps into a stately figure in the market._

 

–

“Do we know each other?”

–

 

_He never gets the chance to answer that because the palace guards come and sweep the man away. Dark blue eyes which continue to haunt his dreams fly back to meet his, confusion and almost-recognition hovering in his gaze._

_He stands there and watches his lover be pulled away from him._

_He later finds out the man, his lover reincarnated, is the Queen’s adopted son._

 

_They don’t meet again after that._

 

_And he tries that they can._

_He tries to find gainful employment inside the castle walls. When that doesn't work, he tries to sneak in. Even pays several unsavory type characters to keep an eye out for the adopted prince's presence in the market._

_If he came to the market alone once, perhaps he'll come again._

_Perhaps he'll follow the pull of their souls and come find him._

 

_But then the day comes when he wakes up and the tugging sensation is gone._

_When word of the adopted prince’s death reaches his ears?_

 

_He quietly leaves the city._

_Travels west until the language, land, and people change. Settles at the banks of the Indus and waits._

_Picks up blacksmith as a vocation and learns how to shoe horses._

_Other than occasionally being kicked by a skittish horse, it’s a peaceful life. He moves along the river, never staying in one place for longer than a few years._

 

_Time passes._

 

_T_ _he Delhi Sultanate is founded._

_The hollow feeling in his core recedes. Hope swells in him that night._

_His lover has reincarnated._

_He works his hammer and anvil and waits for his lover._

_His eyes linger on the horizon._

 

_Waiting. Waiting._

 

_He can't wait to introduce his lover to this idyllic life._

_Until the day he has to learn how to forge swords._

_That’s when they meet again._

 

–

“Abdullah is out.”

“I’m not here for him.”

“….”

“I finally found you.”

–

 

_Irony is that he is remembered in this life time but they don’t have more than a few weeks together because his lover is expected to go and fight against Timur and his army._

_He puts away his tools and picks up shield and spear. Resolves to fight alongside his lover._

_This time he will save him. This time they will survive because they will fight to survive._

_Fight for their happy ending._

 

_Delhi falls._

 

_They’re taken prisoner with the rest of the Sultan’s army._

_They are all killed._

_He considers it a mercy he’s stabbed before his lover is._

_His last thought before he passes out due to the pain is that at least his lover will forget the sight of him ‘dying’ once he is reincarnated._

_As for himself, he doesn’t die._

 

_He wakes up in a pile of corpses, retches, and drags himself away from the stench of death._

 

_Walks, walks, walks._

 

_Bathes in the first body of water he finds._

_The gut feeling which usually guides him to his lover remains dormant for years upon years upon years._

 

_Desperation makes him wander._

 

_He meets all manner of people during his travels. He learns all kinds of skills but none more handy than the art of healing. It gives him a good excuse to move between villages searching for that tugging feeling in his gut._

_There is nothing for decades._

_He contemplates giving up. Contemplates marriage. Gives into his body’s urges a few times and immediately cleanses himself, feeling immensely guilty._

 

_He visits Vijayanagara in the vain hope that perhaps his lover has been reincarnated as royalty again._

_It isn’t so._

_Until it is so._

 

_He feels the tugging sensation pulling him deep into the market, ignoring the different people he knocks elbows with._

_His eyes sweep over colorful stalls and their wares. Past bolts of colorful cotton, piles of pewter, copper, and iron pots, and bags of spices._

 

_Searching._

_Searching._

 

 _And then he m_ _eets the gaze of the emperor_.

 

–

“What is your name?”

“Baburi.”

“Hm. Appropriate. Do you know who I am?”

“Yes.”

“I would like you to join me at the palace. Would you grace me with your company?”

“As Your Highness wishes.”

–

 

_He is invited to emperor Babur’s private rooms often enough after their first meeting. But they never do anything beyond talk._

_Occasionally the emperor shares his poetry with him._

_Mostly they enjoy each other’s company._

_His lover doesn't remember him, much less their last life together. He is glad._

 

_For the first time since their first lifetime together, they get to enjoy each other’s company and bask in the unspoken knowledge that they love each other._

_It’s also the first time their relationship remains chaste._

_He can count the number of times they have touched on one hand._

_The first and only time he kisses him is a kiss good bye, as Babur lies on his deathbed._

 

_Recognition flares at the kiss, followed with intense grief._

_He smiles best as he can and tells his lover that he will continue to wait._

_Waits until Babur breathes his last and stands on his trembling legs._

 

_He leaves in the dead of the night._

_Back home to their small island nation with its melodious language, fields of rice, and pink sakura blossoms._

_Everyone he knew is long dead and he is considered a stranger by everyone._

_However, it is a bad time to return home._

 

_Military conflicts are abundant from one corner of the country to the other. Famine the new norm._

_But he stays because it is home. Avoids involvement in as many fights as he can and waits._

_He feels the tugging feeling in his stomach one day._

 

_Excited, he begins planning his journey to his lover._

_Then one warm afternoon, one week later, the tugging sensation fizzles out and dies._

 

_He doesn’t stop to think about what that means._

_Not the first time._

_Or the second._

_Or the third._

 

_The fourth time the feeling returns, he waits a whole two months before following its pull back to the west._

_To the heart of the Mughal empire this time._

 

_He decides to learn construction as a vocation this time. Winds up helping in the construction of the Taj Mahal and almost accidentally drops a brick on his lovers head._

 

_–_

_“_ Watch it!”

“Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“You… you didn’t.”

“But you’re bleeding!”

“Huh? Oh. So I am.”

–

 

_They live in relative happiness after that. Building their homes next to each other, marrying two sisters who’s husbands died in the last conflict. It’s the happiest and most painful period of his life._

_Because he knows he doesn’t age and it would look suspicious if he remains unchanging, he enlists for the army after a few years. Answering the call for soldiers to fight back the Maratha rebels. Ignores his wife’s cold shoulder and his lover and best friends ire. Almost loses his resolve when his lover grabs him by the arms and shakes him, asking why? Why is he throwing his life away?_

 

_The truth almost spills out._

_He shakes his head, refuses to answer, and hates himself._

_Continues to hate himself long after he marches away and the tugging sensation has turned hollow. Hates their fate as he returns, sits beside his lovers grave, and tells him about all his journey’s so far._

 

_He decides to travel further west and see what else the world holds. Not only to understand how big the world is but also to be unselfish. Let his lover live his life in happiness while he…_

 

_He sees the Ottoman empire at its peak. Leaves as the stagnation sets in. Marvels and how Europe is so different from Japan, China, and the sub-continent. Hates how he struggles to learn their speech It feels too foreign against his tongue._

_It’s a good thing he has nothing but all the time in the world to learn their languages._

 

_The tugging sensation urges him to travel East but he stubbornly moves in the opposite direction. The sensation softens accordingly. He learns to live with the constant ache throbbing in his soul._

_Europe is vast and in its golden age. There is much to see, twice as much to learn, and three times as many places to travel too._

_He remains busy in his travels for nearly five lifetimes._

_The tugging feeling rises and ebbs in the meanwhile and he firmly ignores it._

 

_Travels to London with the intention of joining either Oxford or Cambridge to formally pursue a degree. Something in the sciences perhaps. Picks a Western name for himself, forges his papers, and begins his formal education._

_Works steadily towards his degree until the night he wakes with a gasp, hand curled around his torso. The tugging sensation is the strongest he’s felt in decades._

_His wide eyes fly to the small window of his room. Did his lover…_

 

_Was he here?_

 

_Half-way across the world?_

 

_The tugging sensation turns painful a week later when he steps foot on the large campus._

 

_There's his answer._

 

_He’s here._

 

–

“Sven, was it? I’m Akira.”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

–

 

_Akira is from a wealthy Japanese family, with a business man for a father. He will complete his degree and return home to take over the business._

_Atleast, that_ was _the plan. But they fall in love instead and Akira refuses to leave._

_He takes hold of ‘Sven’s’ hand and presses two tickets to the New World into them._

_Begs him to run away with him._

 

_And damn his romantic heart, he does._

 

_They cross the ocean and enter the Colonies._

_They spend that life together in a cottage at the edge of a forest. Delighting in each other’s company and love._

_His lover remembers them and their truth a few years later and their joy cannot be expressed in words for the years that follow._

 

_–_

_“_ How many times have I died?”

“I never counted.”

“And you? How many times have you died?”

“Not even once. Why do you ask?”

“I dreamed of your death. We were captured soldiers at the foot of city being ransacked by a conquering army. They stabbed you in the heart. I saw you bleed out before me.”

“I’ve never died. I can’t.”

–

 

_The next few lifetimes pass on in this way and he is grateful. Oh so grateful._

_He travels the New World, meets his lover, and they live together in relative peace._

 

_One lifetime. Two. Three._

 

_The century changes. The colonies grow ever bigger. Their resentment towards their English rulers rises as well._

_Their anger festers and grows. It reminds him of a hive of hornets. What will be the stone that will knock the hive lose and set these hornets lose?_

 

_The tea shipments are thrown into the harbor._

 

_Rumors of war float from one end of the city to the other. He begs his lover that they should leave Charleston. Go to Italy, Spain, France. She need only name the place and they'll go._

_She serenely fans herself, opts for France and tells him that it’s too late._

_He assumes his lover was talking about the war and how they could not avoid it._

_He was wrong._

 

_She dies on their journey east._

_She was of poor health in this life._

_She wasn't even thirty years of age._

 

_He leaves Europe to its problems and returns to Asia._

 

_The next century is the most frustrating game of cat and mouse he's ever experienced._

_He chases after the tugging sensation and it dies before he can arrive at his destination._

_Sometimes the tugging sensation lasts for years and sometimes for days. It's the equivalent of chasing after smoke in the wind.  Barely visible and impossible to capture no matter what he tries._

 

_Try as he might, he doesn’t get to see his lover again till well into the new century._

_After Japan is forced to stop its policy of isolation._

_He returns home once again._

 

_Find his lover waiting for him at the docks, face painted white, cupid-bow mouth colored a startling red shade, and wearing the most exquisite kimono he's ever seen._

 

–

“I have been waiting for you.”

“How did you know-?”

“I can feel your presence at all times. It’s how I knew you would be arriving today.”

–

 

_He thinks happiness might be within their grasp in this lifetime. It may just be possible. All they have to do is earn enough money to buy her freedom. It's a simple enough goal to achieve._

_But then a jealous client steals his lover away from him._

_Tries to force her into running away with him._

_And when she refused? Stabbed her._

 

_She's long dead by the time he found out and came to collect her body._

_He throws his lovers ashes to the wind, praying that they’ll find each other faster this time around._

 

_They don’t._

 

_He lives through the dissolution of the samurai way of life and feels so old. Oh so very old._

_How many years has he been alive now?_

_He scoffs at the people who wish for immortality because they don’t know how tiring and wearisome it is. They don’t understand what a curse it is._

 

_The tugging sensation in his gut is the softest of aches, telling him that his lover has been born far, far away this time._

_He's too tired and hurt to try and chase the feeling._

 

_The feeling dissipates eventually._

 

_Despair colors the next century black. He wishes he could go back in time and reword his request to the old gods. Specifically wish for immortality with his lover. Wish for them to have peaceful lives together._

_Wish for things they can’t have._

_He tests the limits of his immortality in every way he can think of._

_No matter what he tries, he doesn’t die._

 

_And the tugging sensation doesn't return._

_Fear gives him the push he needs to begin his search anew._

 

_Time drags on. He feels he may go mad if the tugging sensation doesn’t return. He’s weary of travelling and searching but it’s better than sitting in his hut on the edge of the ocean and waiting._

_Waiting is so wearisome. Possibly the most wearisome thing on this earth._

 

_Time passes as it does. People come and go. Wars and conquests continue in their usual way._

_It occurs to him far too late that perhaps he can entreat to the old gods to_ remove _their curse on him._

 

_But it’s too late._

 

_The world is entering a new age. The old ways are dead and dying. So few people remember the old ways, much less practice them._

_But he searches regardless._

_Crosses continents and oceans, half-following the tugging sensation and half-following desperate leads._

_So many people call themselves witches and druids but they don’t hold the power of the old ones._

 

_He meets a fortune teller who has a smidge of true power and she tells him that one day his search will end._

_It gives him hope._

 

_Her very next words are a warning that he’ll meet his lover again and it will end poorly._

_She’s too right._

 

_–_

“You!”

–

 

_It’s all he manages to say before a bullet kills him._

_After all. It_ was _a battle field and they_ were _enemies. At least. They were supposed to be._

 

_Somehow._

_Somehow._

 

_He manages to hold himself together and holds the old fortune teller’s words close to his heart. Hope is a dangerous thing to hold onto in his situation but it’s all that’s keeping his sane. That there is an end to this painful journey they've put themselves on._

 

_He makes the conscious choice again to ignore his lovers call and focus on finding a way to break this curse. He promises himself that as soon as the curse is broken, he will find his lover again._

 

_The world goes to war._

_Comes back to peace._

_Goes to war again._

_Returns to peace._

_And he continues to search._

 

_He travels to the depths of the oldest forests. The few areas still untouched by man and modern development. And finds nothing there._

_Tries the old rituals he just barely remembers and hopes for the best._

_Silence is his only answer._

 

_Disappointed doesn’t even begin to cover how he feels._

_A sentiment expressed to him by the figure pushing through the shrubbery with a stormy expression on his face._

 

_–_

_“_ I can’t believe you made me come for you! I was expecting you to meet me at least half-way!”

“But … what are you doing here?”

“What do you think, _idiot_?”

–

 

_He explains his plan to his lover. What he's been trying to achieve (and failing miserably)._

_His lover_ _listens carefully, dark hair hiding his eyes and thoughts. Looks up only when his voice cracks mid-way explaining that if sees or feel his lover die once again… he’ll…_

 

_His lover hushes him, holds his face and tells him that won’t happen this time._

 

_He doesn’t understand._

 

_His lover tells him not to worry._

 

_And he doesn't for many, many years._

 

_In fact, he forgets all about it._

 

_–_

_“_ What is this? It smells _terrible_.”

“It’s good for you, that’s why it smells so bad.”

–

 

_The tea tastes worse than it looks, if such a thing was possible._

_It makes him drowsy. Causes him to fall asleep for a day and then some._

_He wakes up, disoriented and sporting a headache that's splitting his skull in two._

_He stares in confusion at the hut and wonders who lives here. Is it his home? Does he live alone?_

 

 _Who is he anyways?_ _What’s his name?_

 

_He wanders out the hut, stands on the edge of the cliff, fingering the strip of cloth clinging to a branch and wonders what his name is._

_And what this ache in his belly is._

 

_He finds money and identification papers in the hut. Uses them to wander around the country, marveling at the new world and its many advances. He travels to the USSR, Italy, Rome, Spain, and the Americas._

_And can’t shake the feeling that he’s been here before._

_But that can’t be possible._

_He even travels all the way to the America's._

_Ignores the odd sensation that he has_ definitely  _been here before._

 

_Until a young lady in Massachusetts exclaims that he looks like the splitting image of her great-great-great-grand mother’s friend. She shows him an old picture of two couples standing side by side in a garden._

_Staring at the coy smile he's seen only in his dreams, he feels like he’s being torn in two as the memories flood back._

 

_He smiles and hands the picture back with shaking fingers, saying perhaps it was one of his ancestors?_

 

_He can’t believe his lover made him forget. He didn’t think such a thing was even possible._

 

_Anger colors his world red for so many years after that._

 

_–_

_“_ How could you make me forget?”

“I’m sorry? Do I know you?”

–

 

_He walks away that time. Too bitter and angry at the betrayal._

_Any time he feels the tugging sensation growing stronger? He moves away out of reach._

 

_It takes him several lifetime to forgive his lover and meet them half-way. But he maintains his distance and remains friends with his lover's new form. Even after his lover gains his memories and wants them to run away together._

_He holds his lovers hands and asks him why. Why did they make him forget?_

 

_-_

"To spare you the pain you've been going through."

"There's no avoiding this pain. No matter what we try."

"You're wrong. We'll find a way. You'll see."

-

 

_T_ _aking full advantage of his state, he has thrown himself into learning everything he can about the world. Over so many lifetimes, he's earned countless degrees and he continues his pursuit his education._

_The world is moving forward at a breakneck pace. For the first time, there's too much knowledge available at his fingertips and he's not sure what avenue to pursue._

_Marveling at human ingenuity and how travel to space for research purposes is common, he decides to join the military academy. If only because it’ll grant him the chance to go into space. The last frontier to be crossed._

 

_The Galaxy Garrison military academy isn't that different from the armies he's been a part of. Not at it's core at least. Learning how to pilot a space ship though? That's as new as new can get for him._

_It keeps him happy and distracted long enough to forget about the tugging sensation that grows and grows._

 

_His lover shows up two years later with a chip on his shoulder and determination burning in his eyes._

_Memories intact._

 

–

“There’s a lady out in the mountains who I think might be able to help.”

“ _Where_ in the mountains?”

“I’m working on that.”

–

 

_His lover is still working on that when he gets assigned to fly a research mission to the edge of their galaxy._

_All the way to one of Pluto's moons._

_His lover says he’ll have an answer ready by the time he returns to Earth._

_He smiles and nods, saying he'll be back within the year._

 

_Instead, he finds out they’re not alone in the universe and that the person who could help them? Was their enemy._

 

_The witch with glowing yellow eyes takes one look at him and sees his curse. Asks him how he accomplished such a feat. He dully tells her the little truth he remembers._

_It’s been centuries. He honestly barely remembers._

_And it’s not like he wanted to remember how he managed to curse himself._

 

_They're lost memories that are best kept lost._

 

_She hisses angrily and orders the guards to throw him back into his cell. Forces him to fight in the arena. Drags him back to her workshop in the middle of the night and drains something called ‘quintessence’ from him._

_“Your immortality makes you a perfect source for it. I wonder how much I can take away from you before you die.”_

_He tiredly closes his eyes because he won’t die. No matter what._

 

_That’s what he genuinely believes._

_After all, isn't that what his experience taught him?_

 

_He takes the time to lie still  on the table and ponder how he can escape._

_Stealing a ship seems like his best option. But how can he get to one?_

_He lies on the cold metal and plots. Wonders why he feels so tired and light headed._

_There comes the day where the drip, drip, drip of quintessence out of him and into the cylinder is slow. He feels dizzy and nauseous. There's a dull ringing in his ears. A cold sweat dots his face. Darkness is creeping on the edges of his vision._

 

_He can feel his heart beat slowing._

 

_Is this what death feels like? He wonders._

 

_“Stop!” The witch barks. “He’s dying!”  
_

_Her spidery fingers grab his cold face and force him to look into her eyes. “Hm. Seems like there_ was _a limit on how much quintessence you had to offer. Well. No matter. You’ve given us five times the amount we’d get from a small planet. King Zarkon will be pleased.”_

 

_After that, he isn’t dragged back to the witch’s workshop._

_He's forced to move between his cell and the arena. The arena and his cell._

_When he's not working out how to escape, his mind flips through his memories like they're a photo album. Smiles into the dark over so many of his lovers little habits that remained unchanged across so many lifetimes._

_The memories give him strength for once. Allow him to stand tall against his opponents and fight with all his might._

_His lover will know he's still alive. No matter what he's told, he'll believe his gut feeling and wait for him._

_Therefore, he_ must  _return to Earth._

 

_Then he loses his arm and he’s forced to accept a Galra replacement. While he’s recuperating there, he overhears Haggar talk about using him as her guinea pig and realizes he needs to leave._

_Immediately._

_Half-baked plan or not, it’s time to go._

 

_His escape is a series of lucky breaks coming together to allow him to steal a small Galra fighter ship and fly away. His luck holds somehow, allowing him to escape the patrols sent after him and turn towards Earth._

_A journey that would have taken an Earth-built rocket years taken a few weeks in the more advanced Galra ship. He’s grimly grateful for the fact that the ship had some emergency supplies stashed away in it._

_But despite the extreme rationing he does, he’s still running on empty in more than one way by the time the ship breaks through Earth’s atmosphere._

 

_He’s not sure what makes him pass out - the force at which the ship is shaking, the tugging sensation that’s pulling him apart, or the hunger that’s been clawing him for two days now._

_Regardless, he passes out well before the ship crashes into the desert._

_When he comes too, two figures wearing hazmat suits are walking into the cockpit._

_He sees their eyes widen as they land on him. Hears their voices shake as they report that “Takashi Shirogane” has returned._

 

_They take a cautious step forward. He tries to stand up but tumbles to the floor._

_He passes out again._

 

_Comes too again as he’s being strapped down to a table._

_Yells at the group to listen to him but it’s no good._

_He’s forced under into sweet darkness._

 

_When he comes too again, he is beyond disoriented._

 

_He’s in someone home, that much is clear. He’s in a proper bed after a whole year._

_He’s still wearing his prisoner uniform though. So it’s either a very vivid dream or… or what?_

_His head hurts terribly._

_What happened after the crash?_

 

_Why can't he remember?_

 

_Straining his memory, he tries to remember the time before the crash. His headache increases in intensity as he tries to fill in the gaps in his memory. There's vague flashes and feelings and that's it._

 

_The door creaks open._

 

_Shiro looks up with wide eyes, wondering who it is._

_It’s his lover, Keith, in all his dark haired, blue eyes glory._

_There’s no tugging sensation in his gut._

 

_Only relief._

 

–

“Keith.”

“Shiro.”

 _“_ I…I can’t feel you. How…?”

“I was hoping you had an answer for that because I didn’t do anything.”

–

 

_He eats the meal Keith brought him, causing his headache to abate. Takes the opportunity to searche his memories again but there’s no change._

_Large chunks of the last year remain missing._

_The harder he tries to remember, the more it hurts._

 

_Keith’s hand drops gently on top of his, reassuring him that his memories will return eventually. They’ll figure out the truth then._

_With a weak smile, Shiro clasps Keith’s hand tighter and kisses his fingertips._

 

_Sighs and murmurs, “I missed you so much.”_

_Murmurs how, for the first time in his long, long, long life, Shiro had been glad of his immortality because all the sweet memories of their many lives together gave him the strength to survive._

 

_Keith holds his face and kisses him, long and tenderly._

 

–

“You’re back now. That’s what matters.”

“Do you think… Because we can’t feel each other, the curse is broken?”

“I guess we won’t know until… But we’ll figure that out later. Why don’t you take a shower and change? There’s a lot we need to talk about.”

–

**Author's Note:**

> And then the show canon kicks in. 
> 
> (Please tell me if I missed out on some tags!)


End file.
